The worst hen’s night ever.

This story is terribly sad but there’s a moral to it, I guess. About pranks. Or love and commitment. Or optimism.

Rachelle Friedman‘s hen’s night went horrifically wrong when her bridesmaids pushed her into the shallow end of a pool. Rachelle broke her neck and is now a paraplegic. The wedding was cancelled and has not been rescheduled.

Rachelle Friedman is paralyzed from the chest down. Now she can’t marry her fiance because their combined income would cause her to lose her Medicaid benefits.

Light at the end of the tunnel: Rachelle, who worked as a dance and aerobics instructor before the accident, remains good-natured. Her betrothed is still devoted to her, even if he can no longer make his devotion official lest Rachelle lose the Medicaid benefits she now relies on. She’s not even mad at her friends: “It was playful, but it went wrong. It was a freak accident.” [ABC News]

Ever done something stupid or silly on a hen’s night? Clearly, this is at the extreme end, please God you’ve never been to a hen’s night that ended as tragically as this. But there’s a huge spectrum of behaviour that goes on at such occasions….

I remember when people used to think it was funny to pull someone’s chair out before they sat down. Imagine doing that now….you’d get sued and probably sent to jail for attempted manslaughter.